eaglefan8

I met him at the basketball district tournament at Watertown this year. I am a cheerleader...well I was...I'm a Senior and our season's been over for a while.

So, it looks like this Westmoreland/Friendship game is really shaping up to be something to see. It's scheduled for April 8th at Westmoreland, right? Somebody let me know if I'm wrong. I'd like to make it to this one. How's this Michael Wheeler guy? If he's who I'm thinking he is then he's a pretty nice guy...with a great memory:)...but I've never seen him play. Somebody let me know.

Our squad has STRICT rules...but I think rules make a good squad great. We all have to wear o ur hair up if it's past our shoulders. We have to wear the same ribbon in our hair, the same shoes, the same socks...things like that. We also can't wear any jewelery at all. We also have policies about indecent exposure. We can't wear our uniforms in public. Just simple things like that. We also use a demerit program so that if someone breaks enough rules...they're off the squad. This year to be kicked off you had to receive 25 demerits. They're pretty simple...5 for wearing the wrong shoes/ribbon/socks....10 for missing a game without a doctor's note...5 for missing a practice without a doctor's note...5 for bad conduct....it's not too rough. We also have a certian number of practices we can miss without docotors' notes. It's very detailed but it works well.

Thanks for the advice Bergil. I am thinking now that I probably won't miss it as bad as I thought I would. Our fans are absoloutely horrible to us....they could care less if we're there or not....so I'm really just fed up with all the dramatics and dynamics that go along with high school cheerleading. We don't get any respect at our school from anyone...that includes teachers, staff, coaches, and students. I love the sport, but I hate most of what goes along with it. I think I'd like to choreograph dances and routines. I do most of the routines that our squad does. I will just have to deal with it all one day at a time. I guess if the opportunity to coach or teach dance classes or gymnastics or something presents itself I'll have to deal with the issue then. But thanks for your help!

I'm a senior cheerleader and this is my 10th year cheerleading. I feel like it's my entire life because I spend so much time doing things for it. I won't be cheering in college mainly because I can't tumble. I know I'll be devastated when it's over, but how can I deal with this? I'm thinking about trying to coach an All-Star squad or working in a gym. Any advice?

Toe Touches are my favorite jump! I used to hate doing them but once you get the form right they're awesome. The just fly. I love them. Nicole Hall at WHS has great toe touches...come to think of it...all her jumps are awesome.

She didn't specify when asking about basket tosses where she would be doing them. I said at high school level, and that is correct. You cannot perform them at games. I don't know about competitions but I would check before you do them there. Just depends on whether or not you want to take the chance.

It's like a kick but you switch your legs in the air. You ride up to the top, kick one leg up and then bring it down as you kick the other up...it looks awesome.

It's illegal at high school level to throw your head back in a basket toss. Your chin should be almost touching your chest. You should try scissors, ball. They're tough to execute and require a lot of leg strength from the flyer but they are beautiful when they're done correctly. We recently started doing them wiht my basket group. The other base and I work really well together so it wasn't that difficult for us. Our flyer is also very experienced in baskets.

Innovative14 do I know you?

If you're doing straight ride baskets make sure not to throw your head back when you arch your body. This makes you ride backwards. You're wanting to ride straight up. Keeping your chin to your neck makes this happen easier. Also, as soon as you get to the peak of the basket(when you feel that you're starting to fall), hit whatever you're hitting, be it a kick, t-touch, or pike. Once you've hit your motion in the air, go back to the riding position as you come down until you're almost in your bases' hands. Then, pull your legs up into a basket position.

Anytime! Hope I helped.

I don't think your hairstyle matters that much as long as the entire squad sports the same one and it's not too over the top. You need to make sure that it is held up well enough to withstand the jumping, stunting, tumbling, and dancing that you will be doing. As far as the favorites right now go, high curly ponies are going out quickly. More squads are picking polished, low ponies with a ribbon tied around it at the nape of the neck. This is practical and looks really nice. It also stays in place better than a high pony tail. As far as music goes, popular music is nice at times, but you shouldn't overdo it. I like to see squads use old music (1960's old....not 1999 old). This usually gets the crowd really pumped as well. You could try using a mix of both. This leads me into my next point. For your routine music, your best bet is to sit down with your squad and a bunch of cds and pick little parts from different songs. Then pick your main song for the routine. Take your selections to someone that has access to a mixer and have them piece in your little parts to the main song. This way it's personal and you know that no one else will be using the same music as your squad is. You can also get creative with your stunts and music going together. ie, hit baskets on cute sound effects. Just have fun with it and make it your own. Those are the most important pieces of advice anyone can get when making a routine. You can use as many stunt sequences as you want. It depends on the type of routine you're performing and how in shape your squad is. It should be fast paced and clean, though. Don't use any stunts that you can't hit EVERY SINGLE TIME you do them. The crowd wants to be in aw, not in fear. You should stunt to your music. When the music is slow, do a slow stunt, and when it's fast, do something fast like baskets or full downs. You should hit a big pyramid at the end that includes all of your squad. Make it clean and crowd appealing. Make sure you hit your stunts at the same time. This may take a little longer in practice but the over all effect will be worth it in the end.

Hmmmm...there is so much that someone could say to that. I think I'll just stick with 'I DEFINATELY agree with Double.'

Wait a minute, WT. You say that being yelled at by the fans is part of the game. So, does that make taking a cheap shot at a player with a recently torn ACL part of the game as well? YOU've got to be kidding ME.